By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
TOORADIN Estate has confirmed the 380-acre riding school and agistment facility has red zoned 12 horses with strangles.
Owner operator of the family run estate, Sally Francis, said the property had been in a “type of lock down situation”, with the land broken up into three zones to combat the bacterial infection.
“Strangles broke out in August, and we have been doing serious testing with the Melbourne University veterinary micro-biology unit and the Melbourne Equine Veterinary Group to find out how many have been infected,” Ms Francis said.
The Tooradin Estate, which has been in the Francis family since 1966, has encountered the contagious bacteria twice before.
“Years ago, we had an outbreak of strangles, and only a few horses got it; it passed by quickly- but this time it’s been a bit of a different experience,” Ms Francis said.
Affecting a horse’s upper respiratory tract causing enlargement of the lymph nodes in the throat, strangles has been a recent issue right through Gippsland, according to Ms Francis.
“I’m not sure how the horses on our estate got infected, but there’s just a lot of it in the area,” she said.
Home to the Tooradin Dalmore Pony Club and the Tooradin Adult Riding Club, the clubs have been meeting elsewhere for the past two months, she said.
“We haven’t been officially asked to lock down but we have been very careful about the number of people that come on the property and have been very vigilant with bio-security to stop the spread of it,” she explained.
Ms Francis said she was confident that out of the 105 horses on the estate, 12 have been infected with strangles.
“It spread quite quickly, but we contained and isolated the horses straight away- we do think we have done a good job and have been praised by the professionals who are helping us to care for the horses,” she explained.
Located on Lynes Road Tooradin, the Australian Equine facility learning and agistment property currently holds 16 head of cattle which have been separated into orange, green and red zones to determine the depth of the spread.
“The 12 horses in the red zone will stay there for as long as it takes for the last lot of clinical symptoms to cease and then they will go through a nasal swabbing process, which is why it takes a long time to clear the red zone,” Ms Francis said.
“We have three different low risk orange zones with horses that might be infected but aren’t showing symptoms, and we have 10 green zone paddocks with horses that are fine.”
Ms Francis said the owners, who had agisted their horses on her land, had been concerned, but considerate of the situation.
“It’s been very dreadful, but they have been helpful and understanding in the planning and the process,” she said.
As the testing continues, Ms Francis said the Tooradin Dalmore Pony Club and the Tooradin Adult Riding Club would be able to hold their November rally at the estate.
